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It’ll be impossible to forget that Ruslan is a professional criminal. I’m still shocked that we haven’t been caught with Eric’s car, and now he wants to go to a place where the cops have been swarming around the clock for two days?
That doesn’t seem like the most rational choice to me, but I’ve already agreed to it. Does that make me part of the mafia now? That sounds a lot sexier than it really is.
Ruslan frowns, the cogs in his head turning as we approach the eerie, scattered lights of the fairgrounds. “You know, you should probably lay low at school for a while, maybe even take the rest of the semester off. Now that you’ve been seen with me, you won’t be safe by yourself.”
“What do you mean? I’m standing by my case that I haven’t done anything wrong,” I say, growing weary of his vaguely threatening statements.
“People who are out to get me might have seen you with me. Even if you haven’t done anything wrong, you’re still implicated in whatever it is that I’ve done to them. I’ve been in this business a long time, so there’s no telling who could be tailing you.”
I feel my stomach sink into the bottom of my abdomen as a venomous heat spreads throughout my body. I was a regular college student with a bright future two days ago. Now, I’m being courted by a vengeful, high-profile criminal.
I’m trying very hard not to resent Ruslan for involving me in all of this, but it gets more difficult every time he opens his mouth.
“So, what am I supposed to do then? Move away and change schools? I can’t just pick myself up and do that. I have a scholarship to this school that’s worth a lot of money. I can’t afford to go anywhere else,” I say.
Conveniently, Ruslan pulls into the parking lot and parks the car before feeling inclined to answer.
“Do a quick look-around to make sure there aren’t any cops here,” he says, his voice lower than normal. “Before all that shit went down at the gas station, we would just be sent away as voyeurs. Now, they’re looking for me.”
I love how he’s trying to pretend that being pursued by the police wasn’tentirelyhis fault.
Yet again, I take a deep breath to remind myself that he’s grieving and likely isn’t in his right mind. “So, you never explained to me what you were actually doing here when I saw you. You said you were waiting for someone, but that was the extent of it,” I say, hoping he’ll at least give me more insight into what I’m up against.
“Well, I was meeting a guy named Johan who was interested in discussing a possible business deal with me. He’s a notorious black-market arms dealer, and he’s very elusive, so getting the chance to work with him is unheard of. I had to jump at the opportunity, even if I thought his choice of meeting place was strange,” he replies, squinting into the distance at the shadows lining the walkway.
Hedidmention someone by the name of Johan when we first met.
Details are starting to come together more quickly now, especially with the revelation that his prospected partner sells guns.
“I mean, wouldn’t it be easier to just go buy a gun from somebody? It’s North Carolina. People hold their guns in their Christmas card photos. I’m pretty sure my dad bought his first gun from a guy in a parking lot,” I say.
He shrugs. “Sure, it would be, but the guns that people pay a lot of money for are foreign, unmarked, or unregistered. It makes it a hell of a lot easier to commit a crime with a gun when it’s untraceable.”
My stomach turns again at the idea of being stalked by someone with unlimited access to unmarked, unregistered, untraceable weapons.
I’m still feeling both impressed with Ruslan’s resilience and concerned for his mental stability. If I had just lost my brother hours before, I would be glued to the floor of my bedroom sobbing hysterically for days. I wouldn’t be eating or sleeping, and I certainly wouldn’t be driving around playing detective.
The only explanation that I can use to justify his behavior is his thirst for revenge.
If revenge is the only thing between him and a bullet to the head, I suppose anyone would prefer revenge.
But I can’t help wondering ifI’mgoing to be endangered by encouraging the pursuit of his brother’s killer.
Ruslan has already made it obvious that I’ve put a target on my back by showing basic human kindness, which should have occurred to me already after being in this town for three years.
I follow Ruslan through the fairgrounds just like I did the first time we were here, stopping for a moment to check the time on my phone when a call comes through.
It’s Eric.
I practically break out into hives from the panic and stress from seeing his name on my screen. Why would he be calling me? Does he know I’m on Ruslan’s side, or is he just concerned for my safety?
If I don’t answer, he might report me as missing along with his car. I have no choice.
“Hello?” I say, my voice shaking from both the chill in the air and my trepidation.
“Where the fuck are you?!” Eric screams into the phone. “You do realize that you’re in a ton of trouble if you don’t come back right now?”
Well, I guess he doesn’t care about me, after all.
